Throughout this specification the use of the word “inventor” in singular form may be taken as reference to one (singular) inventor or more than one (plural) inventor of the present invention.
It is to be appreciated that any discussion of documents, devices, acts or knowledge in this specification is included to explain the context of the present invention. Further, the discussion throughout this specification comes about due to the realisation of the inventor and/or the identification of certain related art problems by the inventor. Moreover, any discussion of material such as documents, devices, acts or knowledge in this specification is included to explain the context of the invention in terms of the inventor's knowledge and experience and, accordingly, any such discussion should not be taken as an admission that any of the material forms part of the prior art base or the common general knowledge in the relevant art in Australia, or elsewhere, on or before the priority date of the disclosure and claims herein.
The most common form of a warning sign has a sign board mounted on a post, with static information displayed on the sign board. The information conveys instructions, warnings, etc. to any person passing by. This type of sign is suitable for providing information of a general nature.
In certain circumstances, there is a need to provide a warning sign that has the capacity to vary the information to be conveyed. To this end, it is known to use illuminated signs that can vary a message by changing the illumination for the message. For example, road speed limit signs can be arranged to change the information displayed between two or more states, such as 80 km/h and 60 km/h.
It is also known to provide signs that contain a large amount of static information, and a variable component that can be manually changed to highlight the particular static information of interest in order to change the message to be conveyed to passers by. For example, it is known to convey a current fire danger rating on a sign that statically displays the range of possible ratings, and a manually movable pointer that is aligned to the current fire danger rating. The advantage of this type of sign is that a large amount of information is conveyed quickly: not only is the current fire danger rating conveyed, but also the level of the fire danger rating within the overall range of possible ratings. Fire danger rating signs with manually movable pointers are widely used across rural areas, particularly in and around towns, villages and major intersections where they are most likely to be seen by travelling persons.
However, a particular disadvantage of this type of sign is that the sign must be manually attended when a change is required. A change to the rating to be displayed can take a fire fighter/volunteer a large amount of time because of the time taken to travel between the signs. Accordingly, there is a need to provide a sign that can be quickly updated, whilst also providing the advantage of conveying a large amount of information quickly.
Accordingly, a problem currently exists where the likes of fire danger rating signs in remote locations are updated only by the physical presence of a person being required to update the sign status. Generally speaking, a similar drawback may be experienced by other environmental conditions signage such as, for example, signs for flood and snow conditions. With particular reference to the example of fire danger rating signage, noted above, existing signs for warning of fire conditions essentially consist of a manually operated sign with a wooden pointer which is rotated by a person on site to indicate one of a number of fire danger level as would be displayed on a face of the sign disposed towards the viewing public. The fire danger level in Australia had been traditionally categorised into “Low”, “Moderate”, “High”, “Very High” and, “Extreme”, ordinarily displayed as coloured segments over a semicircular display. Since the Victorian bushfires of February 2009, the National Bushfire Warnings Taskforce established a new fire danger rating system for bushfires, which now categorises conditions as “Low-Moderate”, “High”, “Very High”, “Severe”, “Extreme” and, “Catastrophic”. The emphasis on the new rating system in light of the tragic loss of property and lives in 2009 has been to engender a more proactive response from the public by alerting the community to new forecast fire danger levels, and guide peoples' responses to forecast conditions, as well as when fires are burning.
It has been noted by the inventor that the existing signs can only be viewed in daylight as they are not illuminated and no meteorological or visual information is available at the point of the sign. They must each be physically changed to update the message. The information provided by existing signs provides basic information that may be incorrect as conditions change. In situations where fire occurs information needs to be updated quickly. Further, it may not always be possible to alter the signs during a fire event, particularly in remote communities. As a result some signs could potentially display incorrect information.
As existing signs are completely manual in their functionality, there is no ability to remotely operate existing fire danger rating signs and no ability to know what the sign is displaying without being at the sign.
Existing signs rely on highly visible reflecting material to be seen. Further, these signs cannot be interpreted unless a person needing to make use of the sign is close to sign.